grass, weeds, should i have my neighbors remove all things green? >> brian: that florida, i mesoglea with the mom. my son is highly allergic to nuts. i'll like to do the same thing. thanks for writing. i'll see you tomorrow. we got two seconds left. just stare. this fox news alert. the terror attack in libya is front and center on capitol hill this morning. lawmakers set to hold three hearings today what went wrong. the first two, house foreign affairs and intel committees expected to kick off about an hour from now. republicans are furious with the president's handling of this attack. renew calls for watergate style committee to find out what went wrong and why four americans lot of their lives on the ground that night in benghazi. good morning, everybody. i'm martha maccallum here in "america's newsroom.". >> i'm gregg jarrett in for bill hemmer

gregg: the president taking a combative tone at the news conference since his election. white house correspondent ed henry he said he too wants to get to the bottom what happened at benghazi. >> their number one priority is to protect american lives. that's what our job is. >> [inaudible]. >> ed, we're, i'll put forward, i will put forward every bit of information that we have. i can tell you immediately upon finding out that our folks in were in danger that my orders to my national security team, do whatever we need to do to make sure they're safe. martha: but what happened then? because there are stories, reports that they asked to proceed and they were told to stand down. and lost their lives. i'm joined by chief intelligence correspondent catherine herridge live from capitol hill this morning. catherine, what do we expect in these closed hearings today. >> reporter: thank you, martha. fox news is told lawmakers

will drill down on three issues today. first and perhaps foremost the intelligence picture leading up to the attack on the consulate in benghazi on 9/11. there were a series of incidents between june and september of this year, one specifically was an ied attack on the u.s. consulate itself. this caused major damage, but there was no significant security response and this is seen by the u.s. intelligence community as a testing or probing incident before the 9/11 at act itself. secondly how quickly did the u.s. intelligence community conclude what happened in benghazi was in an act of terrorism linked to al qaeda and a second group ansar al-sharia? how does that time frame match up with the administration's statements that it was in fact a demonstration that was spontaneous in response to the anti-islam video? and third, why was it that the state department denied repeated requests from ambassador stevens in benghazi along with his staff for additional security specifically, a

classified briefing in august that determined the consulate could not withstand a coordinated attack from groups like al qaeda and as well as ansar al-sharia? for some context the people who are testifying today this is the top of the u.s. intelligence community as well as the law enforcement community. we have the director of national intelligence, the acting cia director. we also have a top deputy from the fbi. an undersecretary from the state department in addition to the head of the national counterterrorism center. this is the nation's hub for threat assessments in this country. what is most eagerly anticipated is the testimony of former cia director david petraeus. what we expect now that will happen on friday, martha. martha: fast nating to see how each of those sides, and david petraeus present what was going on and what their agencies were doing. then there is this big question, catherine, which john mccain is pushing for, a special investigation, a

panel, a select committee to be put in place. is there any chance of that? >> reporter: well there seems to be some immediate pushback. to lay it out for folks. we have three senior senate republicans who believe the fallout from benghazi is so significant it is on par with some of the major scandals of american history. >> watergate investigation benefited from a joint select committee. iran-contra benefited from a select committee. i think finding the truth about benghazi is only possible if you combine the resources of these three committees and do it in a professional manner. >> reporter: shortly after that announcement the senate majority leader harry reid said he would not support the proposal and there has also been hesitation from other republicans and moderates in the senate saying that the proposal is premature. >> i think we ought to give the established committees of the congress an opportunity to see where we can get in answering some of the questions that everybody

has. >> i do not see the benefit of, nor the need for a select committee. >> reporter: so the question here is, whether these individual committees and there are about a half dozen that launched their own investigations into dwauz gauze are really well-placed to handle it or the story metastasized that it needs a select committee and whether there is enough support in the senate to make that happen. martha: fascinating to see what goats out of these hearings and what we learn about what they all knew. catherine, thank you very much. >> reporter: you're welcome. gregg: senator lindsey graham saying he holds the president ultimately responsible for benghazi. and on the hannity program, the graham questioning why the obama administration sent out ambassador rice to handle the after the attack in the first place. >> i can't believe the

president sent something out to talk about benghazi that that had nothing to do with benghazi. why did they pick her? she is not in charge of consulate security. she works in the u.n. why nobody from the state department? i believe she is a close political ally on the president. she went on national tv four or five days after the attack when there is no credible information that the video scenario was real. and she either through incompetence or an intentional effort to mislead the american people tried to spin a story that would help the president. gregg: pretty stunning charge. as we mentioned, senator graham joining senators john mccain, kelly ayotte calling for a watergate-style joint committee of congress to investigate the attack. later on "america's newsroom", reaction from a big critic of the president on libya, georgia senator john any isakson will join us. martha: as we mentioned the house foreign affairs committee on benghazi kicks off at the top of the hour.

in 20 minutes, kong hand ed royce who chairs the subcommittee on answers he is look for. we'll talk to him coming up here on "america's newsroom". gregg: hurricane sandy blamed on a big increase in weekly jobless claims. the number of americans filing for jobless benefits jumping by 78,000 to 439,000. there's the number on your screen. that is the highest level in a year and a half. stuart varney, anchor of "varney & company" on the fox business network. stu, this is huge compared to what they were expecting, right? >> you can't explain this huge number entirely on the storm, sandy. it is true that last week many people up and down the eastern seaboard were able to get out of their houses for the first time and go down and file. that accounts for some of this big increase. but gregg, there is a suspicion that the underlying trend is for higher and higher jobless pen fit claims because the

economy appears to be getting weaker and weaker. we face tax increases next year. that's been noted by business. there have been some layoffs prior to those tax increases. and so the underlying trend may be up. it has been exaggerated by hurricane sandy. gregg: stu, things could get worse january 1st, when all of these spending cuts and tax increases happen. it is so-called fiscal cliff. put it up on the screen. 158 million americans would be affected by this. the average household, $3500 a year in tax increases. you're talking about 88% of the households are going to see tax increases. if i read the cbo report correctly, they say this will drive us right back into another huge recession, right? >> well you've got two cbo reports. the one you're referring to says, yes, you go over that fiscal cliff, massive tax increases and big spending cuts. you will go into recession.

a separate report looks just at what happens if we raise taxes on the top 2%. just on the rich, the top 2%. if we do that, we lose 200,000 jobs next year. factor that into the employment situation, gregg. it's not pretty. gregg: it is not. stuart varney, thanks very much. there is the number, a lot of zeros after that too. stuart, thanks very much. martha: put it in context for you. since december of 2007, weekly jobless claims stayed above 300,000. you can see the big spike in early 2009. economist say weekly claims must consistently fall below 375,000, which is shown by the yellow line there. you can see we bounced along it a little bit. and now you have this huge spike that we just got this morning. 439,000 in that recent surge. gregg: you know what? we're minutes away from the opening bell on wall street and the dow has really taken

a dive since election day, dropping about 675 points. and it has been down for three consecutive trading days now for the month to date. it has dropped over 4%. check your 401(k). i don't want to depress you. don't check your 401(k). we will keep an eye on the markets throughout the show. martha: the eurozone officially falling back into recession for the first time in three years. growth dropped for the 17-nation eurozone by .1 of a percent in the last quarter. one of the leading factors is the sky-high unemployment rate which is at 11.6%. can countries like spain and greece are seeing unemployment over 25%. we know what has been happening in the streets of those countries. nearly 17% of all u.s. trade this year has been with the european union. we are just getting started this morning, folks as we await for hearings to get

underway. we are covering this story as well. rockets firing in the middle east. we're hearing shaseveral people have been killed in these attacks. militants have a new warning after israel takes out a top hamas commander. gregg: new questions for the attorney general. what he knew about the investigation into former cia director david petraeus. and was he right to keep word of the affair from the president? we'll ask former attorney general alberto gonzales. martha: the white house, the scene of a big meeting on the so-called fiscal cliff tomorrow. what both sides are saying about taxes, the deficit, and the chances that we could reach a real deal. >> i do think that the spirit of cooperation that you've seen over the last week from myself and my team, from democrats across the

aisle. from the president. have created an atmosphere where i think that, i'm, remain optimistic.

gregg: welcome back. hard to believe. thanks give something just around the corner. dozens of us airways flight attendants though are picketing at phoenix's sky harbor airport demanding more money and a new contract. without a deal, they warn they may go on strike. the flight attendants have been working without a contract for the last 14 years. and negotiations, currently are stalled. they say they are trying to draw attention now by picketing in hopes of avoiding a strike later on. martha: former cia chief general david petraeus will now testify before the house intelligence committee in a closed hearing that will happen at 7:30 tomorrow morning is the scheduled time for that. lawmakers believe that he is key to learning more about the benghazi terror attacks.

he made a visit there at end of the october to investigate a bit on his own. meanwhile there are new questions why attorney general eric holder did not inform the president of the fbi's investigation into general petraeus until after election day. holder has known about the investigation according to some of these reports since the summer. we know fbi director mueller knew since the summer. let's discuss this. we're very glad to have joining us this morning former u.s. attorney general judge alberto gonzales. judge, good morning. good to have you with us. >> good morning, thanks. martha: a lot of elements to this of course. let's start with this issue of eric holder that we just brought up. how does it strike you in terms of what was going on at the white house, and the fbi, over the course of this summer when we know that director mueller of the fbi was aware there was a investigation into general petraeus? seem strange to you that the president would not be alerted to this fact?

>> well, i can't speak for what is going on in the obama white house. bob mueller was my fbi director when i was the attorney general. i suspect at some point this summer bob mueller would have notified the attorney general. i have reason to believe general general petraeus is involved in an a extramarital relationship. now i would have taken that information, which i consider significant to the president quite frankly. i think the president would want to know that information. i think the president wants to know that the person who holds many of nation's secrets is engaged in conduct that reflects poor judgment. also, at the time, we now believe reporting is there was no breach of national security as a result of this relationship. i suspect in the summer we weren't really quite sure of that consequently it might be important for the president to know that in his conversations with david petraeus. for matters of national security i think this would be a reason why the president would want to know that the law enforcement community, that the fbi, had

reason to believe that david petraeus was involved in this relationship. martha: i'm curious what you think when you read accounts of this, about the fbi agent who was alerted by this woman, about what was going on? you know and then when they discovered as you say that they believed there was no security breach here. why would that matter still be pursued? what are your thoughts as you read all of this? >> well, you know, again, with an ongoing investigation, you're not sure of what you don't know and so the fbi, there's a great deal of scrutiny in this investigation of course and the fbi wants to make sure no stone is left unturned to make sure no crime, you know, has been committed. that there really in fact no national security breach. you heard the president say repeatedly yesterday about this being continually under investigation. so the investigation really does continue. and again, i think it is important to know whether or not a breach did occur. martha: yeah. you know, i'm curious what

president bush what his reaction would have been. you worked with him for a long time. if he found out there was an ongoing investigation into his cia director all summer and for some reason that information was withheld from him until days after the election? >> again it's hard, now you're asking me to speculate about what the reaction would have been. i think he would have been surprised. given the relationship he and i enjoyed every many years beginning our days in texas i think i can read him pretty well. again this is information, someone, who at the end of the day is accountable to the american people. is accountable for the appointment of david petraeus. is accountable for the protection of our nation's secrets. this is something that president bush would have wanted to know. martha: would you consider it a breach of eric holder he is duties that he did not inform the president when it did have impact on national security or there was concerns that might? >> there is no, well there is no reason here to believe any kind of crime has been committed.

as to whether or not there has been a breach of duty, you know, i don't know again what the relationship was between this attorney general and this president, what their --. martha: we know they're very good friends, judge. i mean, by all accounts they have been very good friends for many years. >> well, of course no question about that and that may have, that may have had a role in the decision by the attorney general. there of course is a protocol with respect to being careful about sharing information regarding an ongoing investigation between the department of justice and the white house. that protocol, as far as i'm concerned would not in any way deter me as attorney general from sharing information with the president of the united states on a matter that i think is vitally important to, potentially important to national security of our country. martha: understood. i want to play an exchange for you from yesterday's news conference between ed henry, our white house reporter, and the president because it goes to the central issue here that i think to some extent gets lost in all of this. that is four people were killed on the ground in benghazi. a lot of people are very

indignant and insistent something must be done in terms of an investigation to bring those killers to justice and give those families some satisfaction that has been concluded. listen to this, and i would love to get your thoughts on it, sir. >> on 9/11 as commander-in-chief did you issue any orders to try to protect their lives? [inaudible] >> now, ed, i'll put forward, i will put forward every bit of information that we have. i can tell you that immediately upon finding out that our folks were in danger, that my orders to my national security team were, do whatever we need to do to make sure they're safe. martha: we will get the reaction of judge alberto gonzales to that, after this break.

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martha: welcome back. i'm joined once again by former u.s. attorney general judge alberto gonzales. judge, as we saw in the exchange between the president and ed henry in the east room. the president said my orders were to do whatever they needed to do to keep them safe. do you think the american people deserve to know how that order was received and how that order was carried out? >> well, there are two things from that clip you just, i brief the president said we will be bringing forward information, all the information. it has been two months after the fact. i'm curious, why, why hasn't been brought forward already? that was a little bit surprising. and you're absolutely right. if in fact he gave the orders to do everything possible to protect the safety of these americans why weren't those orders carried out? from all indication there was very little to nothing done in response to that order. these are very serious questions the american people deserve an answer to.

martha: how should we go about finding that answer? what kind of process would you pit in place? well, of course i think the congress initiating that process over the next few days. there has been discussion perhaps having a special select committee in congress. that is entirely of course up to congress. my own view is however, see what kind of information comes out of these hearings. if in fact congress continues to believe they're not getting information they need i think they should explore extraordinary measures. martha: judge gonzalez, very good to have you with us today. thank you so much. >> thank you. gregg: president obama traveling to new york city today to some of the hardest hit neighborhoods actually devastated by superstorm sandy. expected to meet with first-responders as well as families struggling to rebuild. eric sawn is -- shaun live in staten island. what will the president be able to see? >> reporter: gregg, it is

just a scene of devastation and destruction. landscape of ruin. this house boarded up, abandoned. this house moved by the force of water. look at the cars, they were completely moved when the water cascaded from the bay onto the streets of staten island. people here are desperate. they say they don't have a lot of hope. they think insurance money will never be able to repair their lives completely. look what they're dealing with. they still don't have electricity more than two weeks after the devastation. take a look at this, we saw a house ripped off its foundations. it is in the middle of the street. sadly, tragically, there are makeshift memorials around this neighborhood. this one is to a man named jimmy rossi. the sign on the door says, we love you, jimmy. he was 85 years old. moved his car to higher ground. came back to his house. he was not able to escape. his body was found in his backyard. he tried to leave with his 85 pound bulldog, shorty.

after the 51 victims died in this area here on staten island, gregg. gregg: eric, there are signs i suppose of things getting better there. tell us about that. >> there are that. the hospitals for example, bellview medical center remains closed today but on monday they will begin to see outpatients. in nyu langone medical center was evacuated. they're trying to get up to speed there. they're moving to open hospitals. we talk to the president of the new york hospital system. he told us they had never seen anything like this. >> at bellview we had a mini tsunami come off the east river and enter through the loading dock of the basement with so much force it ripped through a lot of the systems down there. >> reporter: but the hospitals won't be fully back until february, gregg. gregg: eric shawn, live in staten island. eric, thanks very much. martha? martha: well israel is declaring a state of emergency. rockets have been fired and

we are live near the action on the israel-gaza border. gregg: we're minutes away from two hearings on capitol hill over the terrorist attack in libya. in three minutes we'll talk with a key lawmaker who will be in on one of those hearings. [ mother ] you can't leave the table till you finish your vegetables. [ clock ticking ] [ male announcer ] there's a better way... v8 v-fusion. vegetable nutrition they need, fruit taste they love. could've had a v8. or...try kids boxes!

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gregg: well, just minutes until congressional leaders arif at the libya hearings on capitol hill.

those hearings today on what went wrong in the benghazi terror attack on 9/11. four americans, including u.s. ambassador chris stevens, were murdered. california congressman ed royce sits on the house foreign affairs committee. he chairs the house terrorism subcommittee. i know you will be heading in there in just a moment. thanks for taking a few minutes with us. the president offered almost no information yesterday in the news conference on benghazi. he refused to say if he issued an immediate order to help those under attack. are you disappointed that the president hasn't been more forthcoming? >> well, i think we're disappointed in several things. one, we had a team of 16 security personnel that were pulled out, that were pulled out of the theater before the attack. that was very unfortunate. second, the quick reaction force did not arrive in time to save our americans and

every indication is that that was a delayed response. the third point of course is that to try to spin this after the attack, an attack that occurred on 9/11, to try to argue this was a protest against a video that spun out of control when we already had the evidence and indeed an al qaeda affiliate was claiming credit for the attack on the very day of the attack, that is just, that seemed bizarre. yes, we have many, many questions. gregg: do you think the president or the white house is lying? >> well i think the question is, why did it take eight days of insisting and spinning this story that it was a spontaneous attack. gregg: what do you think the answer is? >> well i think the answer is that the british, the united nations, the red cross, all had ample evidence that they had come under attack and so did our consulate. our consulate had been under attack. all reached the conclusion it was time to bring

security in and the administration did not do that. the administration did not put the security that had been requested in place. gregg: in fact, congressman, yesterday, and i will quote the president, this is about the only thing he did say of substance. my orders were to do whatever we need to do to make sure they're safe. congressman, no help ever arrived. does that mean that the president's orders were either ignored or refused? >> well we need to get the answer to exactly that question because in the first place the contingency plans that should have been in place, the cancellation of the security team that was supposed to be there to defend in an attack like this, the lack of response by the quick reaction team in a timely fashion, the fact that you had a six-hour firefight without, without forces coming to the aid of americans there. and lastly we now have lost that asset. we lost that cia unit there

on the ground monitoring and trying to tell us about weapon systems that were moving through that area and al qaeda in that area. so all of that has been lost. gregg: congressman, reportedly there were a couple of drones there, one in particular that was providing real-time coverage of exactly what was happening, all the way, arguably to the white house and the situation room. if it's true that the president was there, may have been watching and yet delegated the task to the pentagon, do you consider that to be inappropriate for a commander-in-chief when american citizens are under fire? >> well, i do think it is inappropriate. and i also think that the administration had in mind a certain scenario, that they were pushing. the idea, as we saw on five separate appearances by our u.n. ambassador over the weekend where the thesis was that this was a, was after

all, a protest that had spun out of control. i think they had bought into a storyline that didn't match the reality on the ground, and it was very hard for them as a consequence to adjust to the fact that it was an al qaeda attack. but occurring on 9/11, it should been obvious to them, and certainly obvious to other consulates in the area that al qaeda was operating and indeed training, not far from the benghazi facility. gregg: congressman, what is the one thing you hope to learn today? >> well, when what i would like to know when the request was made for help who in the chain of command denied that help to our ambassador and to our team there on the ground. gregg: do you have suspicions? >> i do not know answer to this. i want to find the answer to that. gregg: there is a mountain of evidence that contradicts the story that was put out by the white house for up to two weeks, that this was all just a youtube video, and

not a terrorist attack. what do you make of that? >> i think this is the problem. when you have a thesis as to why there's resentment against the united states around the world and you advance that as the explanation, when in point of fact, what we really had on the ground was al qaeda preparing for another 9/11 attack. and the unfortunate thing about this, is that al qaeda hits these targets over and over. we saw that on 9/11, and so we need to learn from this particular attack. our inability to be prepared and to have a contingency plan to save these americans, we don't want this replicated again. so the next time this occurs, we have to have the right frame of mind going in and we have to give the security forces the go ahead to come

to the aid of americans under attack. gregg: congressman ed royce, we will let you proceed behind you, into the hearing room. and thank you so much for taking a few moments. >> thank you. martha: should be fascinating this morning. looking forward to more information on that. and in the meantime there's a state of emergency as we get word on deadly fighting between hamas militants in gaza and israel. dozens of rork kets being fired from gaza today, bombarding southern israeli towns. ashtud, israel, is one city hit by the attacks. that is where leland vittert joins us live. >> reporter: martha, so far the iron dome missile defense system behind me intercepted 80 rocks coming out of the gaza. the iron dome is only thing protecting millions of israeli citizens who live in the line of fire. we have more missiles coming

in. you can see everyone running. this is the very safest place. we'll come in under here and now we wait. those awful seconds that everyone in this part of the world knows what it is like to wait as missiles coming in, you know it's here. the question is, where will it hit? and there it was, the explosion very near by. what you don't know whether that was the iron dome exploding intercepting the missile or whether that was another hit somewhere around this very densely populated residential area. there you go. that is the iron dome. you have an explosion up in the air. we'll walk around to the other side where you saw this damage. when you talk about what these missiles can do that's it. this is the other side of the apartment building we were on. you're looking at the gaza strip where the missile flew out of and into this apartment building. you get a sense how random the killing is here. and also how absolute the

destruction is. this is where one of the people who died in the apartments were standing. as you look through here, you see just how much is blown away. and as of now, the death toll is three people on the israeli side with a number injured mainly at that apartment building we were at inside the gaza strip. there have been a number of militants killed. that is how the operation began with all targeted killings. at least a number of civilians bring death toll in gaza to about 15 people. hamas said israel opened the gates of hell. they are prepared to escalate this. we see tanks heading toward the gaza border. the question going forward, do cooler heads prevail. the funerals for the militants were dead. does hamas bury the dead and move on or do we head towards war. back to you. martha: leland, insightful look what it is like to be on ground and live in the buildings where all this is going on. leland. thank you very much.

gregg: president obama is set it welcome members of congress for talks in keeping america from going over the so-called fiscal cliff. we'll take a look whether there's a deal in the works for not. is it a fair and balanced deal? we'll debate it next. >> if you look closely what the president had to say and look closely what i've had to say, you know, there are no barriers here to sitting down and beginning to work through this process ♪

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of digital hearing aids for crisp, natural sound even in crowded environments, with a 90-day risk free trial from providers you can trust. i'm enjoying my freedom again. even conversations in noisy restaurants are easy. not an aarp member? join today. and then take advantage of the aarp hearing care program provided by hearusa. call hearusa ... and reconnect with your world today. martha: congressional leaders head into the white house tomorrow for a meeting on how to stop the country from going over the so-called fiscal cliff which is an urgent matter, i think both sides agree on that. both parties say they are already drawing some of their lines in the sand where they will or will not go on this issue. house speaker john boehner says he believes they can reach a deal. >> i don't think anyone, on

either side of the aisle under estimates the difficulty that faces us. but i do think the spirit of cooperation that you've seen over the last week from myself and my team, from democrats across the aisle, from the president, have created an atmosphere where i think that, i'm, i remain optimistic. i was born with a glass half-full. >> what i have told leaders privately as well as publicly, is that we can not afford to extend the bush tax cuts for the wealthy. what we can do is make sure that middle class taxes don't go up. 98% of americans are not going to see their taxes go up. 97% of small businesses are not going to see their taxes go up. if we get that in place, we are actually removing half of the fiscal cliff. martha: doug schoen, former pollster to president bill

clinton. monica crowley, radio talk show host. both are fox news contributors and what i'm hearing through both of those quotes we're pretty much where we were the last time that the president and john boehner got together. that republicans are going to refuse to go along with any tax increases until, really because they want to see it done slightly different way which we can get into. the president says, that he won't budge either, monica. >> yes. what goes around and comes around and here we are exactly the same spot, martha, as you just said. there are two sacred principle at play for the republicans not raising taxes and cutting spending. focus seems to be because president and democrats do have control over this narrative only thing that seems to be at the conversation here, what we're talking about is, the tax issue, revenue versus rates. but i also think that the republicans really need to focus on cutting spending. that is the other part of this equation that is, just as important if not more important, martha because this country does not have a

revenue problem even though --. martha: president will say he proposed all kinds of spending cuts. that is what the president is going to say. >> remember, martha, he said the defense sequestration will not come into play. during one of the debates he said that is not going to happen. nobody really believes these actual spending cuts will materialize. we've seen this play before. we saw it under president reagan when he agreed to tax increases for spending cuts. those spending cuts never materialized by democrats. same thing happened with george h.w. bush, when he agreed to raise taxes in exchange for spending cuts. the spending cuts never happen. that is the issue and that is the real problem, martha. it is the spending not the taxes. martha: all right. but, doug, address, i think monica is absolutely right about that but let's address the revenue side because republicans are going to argue, doug, because you get increased revenue from rich people in other ways. you take out loopholes. that will increase revenues that come in. why is it democrats are so

unwilling to entertain the other possibilities of raising revenues outside of the tax hike? >> i'm one democrat who is willing to do it. i've written articles to that effect and believe everything should be on the table, including entitlement reform. martha: yes. >> we can't afford to gut our military in the way that sequestration would suggest we're going to have to but bottom line, i think we need the white house and republican leadership to get together on a long-term, that is like a month, negotiation, to try to do a grand bargain. we are heading towards a recession. we don't have time for politics. we're all americans. we can't play games about this otherwise we could --. martha: you heard the president. he says i campaigned on this. there is no way that i am going to let those tax cuts expire for wealthy americans. he said 98% of the folks who are out there with me on this. there is no way i'm going to do it. >> he also said that he was open to other solutions. he would listen to what the

republicans say. given what boehner said as well, i think we owe it to ourselves as americans who urge both sides to put everything on the table and whether it be the democrats or republicans, get off long-held fixed positions that may well involve intransigence and not public policy. martha: about 30 seconds here but is john boehner going to have a difficult time negotiating with his own party on what is acceptable? >> he might because the tea party coalition believes very strongly we should not be caving on tax rates or increasing taxes in any way. but look, this is a core republican principle. the reason there is a tea party over many years the republican establishment caved on some of these core principles. look on issue of rates versus revenue what boehner is saying, and it is a strong argument, martha, in the past the president at least indicated he is open to it, you do tax reform, you lower rates, close those deductions, broaden the base, you actually get more

revenue. martha: thanks so much, guys. we'll take a quick break and we'll be right back but because of business people like you, things are beginning to get rolling. and regions is here to help. making it easier with the expertise and service to keep those wheels turning. from business loans to cash management, we want to be your partner moving forward. so switch to regions. and let's get going. together. or annuity over 10 or even 20 years? call imperial structured settlements. the experts at imperial can convert your long-term payout into a lump sum of cash today.

gregg: republican governors meeting in las vegas right now looking ahead to the future. and dan springer is there live. hi, dan. >> reporter: hey, gregg. there are 30 governors now across the country that are republicans. they actually added to their ranks in this last election. that is the most they have had since 2000. it is interesting, because 11 of those gop positives are in states that voted for president obama in the last election. you see how different the election might have turned out had ohio, florida, nevada, colorado, some of those states gone for mitt romney. they're talking about the economy. they're talking the unemployment rate is 1%

lower in those states that have gop governors. louisiana governor bobby jindal yesterday talked about the economy and the success the gop governors are having. >> you look at what other governors are doing to lower their unemployment rates. for example, john kasich in ohio and rick scott in florida, they're improving the private sector economies. republican governors have great experience when they pursue tough policies and tough choices not for austerity sake. it is a prosperity agenda. >> reporter: a lot of people are talking about bobby jindal a rising star and possible candidate in the 2016, gregg. gregg: dan, the presidential raise is probably coming up in this meeting as well, right? >> reporter: it certainly is. there is a lot of hand-wringing, a lot of talk about why the gop, why mitt romney did not win at the presidential level this past election. there has been mostly complimentary talk about governor romney saying he was a good man. he also had a good plan but there has been talk about he

never really connected fully with the american people. to that point, governor jindal was asked about a comment romney made on a conference call yesterday with donors. he said he lost because president obama offered, quote gifts to young people and minorities. jindal rejected that and alluded to romney's damaging 47% comment, saying the gop had to fight for 100% of the vote. >> let's show we're the party not of big banks, wall street, of bailouts, not big business. we're the party that stands for families and small businessings, those simply working hard to pay their bills so their kids can get even better jobs. >> reporter: there's also been a lot of talk about the hispanic vote. of course president obama got 71%. mitt romney just 27%. compare that to the 44% that president bush got in 2004. you can see the party has its demographics problem. they're talking about softening their stance on immigration. possibly talking about, comprehensive reform that

would allow for a path to citizenship, gregg. gregg: dan springer, live in las vegas. don't forget to double down on 20 and split your aces. martha: there is the scene right now on capitol hill. the hearings on libya about to get underway. we'll bring it to you cook what you love, and save your money. joe doesn't know it yet, but he'll wk his way up from busser to waiter to chef before opening a restaurant specializing in fish and me from the great northwest. he'll start investing early, he'll find some good people to help guide him, nd he'll set money aside from his first day of work to his last, which isn't rocket science. it's just common sense. from td ameritrade. is a thrilling, dual-flavored ride to mouth fun-town. but it's not like everyone is going to break into a karaoke jam session. ♪ this will literally probably never happen.

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unitedhealthcare is committed to delivering a health care experience you'll truly value. call today. i am so ready to call. martha: fox news alert. two hearings are getting started on capitol hill this morning. lawmakers are trying to get to the bottom of what happened in benghazi on september 11, that led to the deaths of four americans including our ambassador, chris stevens. brand new hour starting now in "america's newsroom." good morning everybody, i'm martha maccallum. gregg: i'm gregg jarrett in for bill hemmer who is on assignment right now. former cia director david petraeus will testify at a closed-door intel committee hearing tomorrow on the terrorist attack. this as we learn the identity of the fbi agent who got the ball rolling on the investigation into the threatening e-mails sent to a friend of petraeus that

ultimately cost him his job. martha: national security correspondent general fir griffin joins us live from the pentagon. jennifer, where does this investigation into general john allen stand at this point? >> reporter: as you mentionedded david petraeus will be on the hill tomorrow morning at 7:30 in front of the house intel tell committee. he will not speak of the affair with paula broadwell but talk about benghazi. john allen investigation remains in the hands of the dod inspector general. that investigation is still going on. the president expressed confidence in his top general yesterday at that press conference and the pentagon will not specifically characterize the 20,000 pages of e-mails between general allen and tampa socialite jill kelley. sources familiar with the e-mail traffic say they are not as innocuous as some of general allen's backers suggested. we are told some of the

exchanges are the equivalent of phone sex. general allen denies having a sexual relationship with kelley, martha. martha: he said he was never alone in a room with her but there are a lot of questions as you point out what is being revealed in some of these e-mails. let's talk about the fbi agent. until very recently nobody knew who this man was. now we know who he is and we're learning a lot more about him. >> reporter: it is interesting because the leaks coming out about him made him sound like he was obsessed with jill kelley and sending her shirtless photos of himself. we learned who he is. he is fred humphries. he is a veteran of the fbi. in fact a hero. back in 1999 it was his instincts that led to the foiling of the millennial plot to blow up the los angeles airport by rassam. he was the one who pushed hard that he be arrested and that plot was eventually unraveled because of fred humphreys's work.

i spoke to his lawyer last night who said his client feels he has been mischaracterized. he sent the shirtless photos as a joke to jill kelley a long time ago. he and his wife used to have the dinner with the kelleys. it was a picture of him on the firing range between two dummies. he feels it has been mischaracterized. the lawyer for fred humphries says he is still working. he has not been informed by the fbi that he is under investigation, martha. martha: wow! this story has touched so many lives. as you point out we're learning the other side of this story as it comes through the pipeline here. jennifer griffin at the pentagon. >> by the way, the two women at the heart of the petraeus scandal, they no longer have special privileges with the military. biographer paula broadwell held high security clearance because of her former role as army reservist. that clearance has been revoked.

tampa socialite, jill kelley, considered herself honorary ambassador consume general to the military's top brass because she hosted parties essentially at her home, well she no longer has special access to mcdill air force base in tampa. that is of course where centcom has its headquarters. that is how kelley became friend with general david petraeus and general john allen. martha: all right. let's get you back to this news that is breaking quickly out of the meet. we've got brand new video in from near the gaza border where three israelis have been killed in a militant rocket attack. just yesterday an israeli airstrike in the gaza strip killed a military head of hamas. then you have seen the subsequent realtation for that. the violence increes fears of fullout israeli ground assault. we'll have much more with ambassador john bolton a little later in the show. gregg: and president obama is heading to new york city

today to tour the most sandy-ravaged areas. the president expected to meet with affected families and first-responders. molly henneberg live at the white house with more on that. molly, what is the message behind the president's visit? >> reporter: hi, gregg. president obama has been saying that the federal government is making a difference in the storm response in new york and new jersey. this is his second visit to see sandy-ravaged areas. you may remember on october 31st he went to see new jersey. today he is going to parts of new york city. he will talk to people there, talk to first-responders. here's what the president said yesterday about his administration's response to superstorm sandy. >> people are still going through a really tough time. the response hasn't been perfect but it's been aggressive and strong and fast and robust and a lot of people have been helped because of it. >> reporter: been a busy week for the president.

he had meets here at the white house with business leaders, with labor leaders, talking about the fiscal cliff. he had a press conference yesterday. he is doing a storm recovery trip today. as you've been talking about on your show, gregg, this is in the shadow of benghazi libya hearings and the petraeus testimony live on capitol hill. gregg: the president said, strong, robust and fast is the response. i'm not sure a lot of new yorkers and folks that live in new jersey feel that way. what about local lawmakers? >> reporter: right. for many people in new york and new jersey the lights are not back on yet. the power is not back on yet. republican congressman peter king says, quote it is a disgrace. owe blames the long island power authority. he wants president obama to use the bully pulpit to knock them into shape, talking about the long island power authority. king said earlier this week, quote, there will be tens of thousands of people homeless. there is still i think 60 to 70,000 people without power. homes have been wrecked.

congressman king goes on to say i'm asking the president to send in more people from the army corps of engineers to not only do work but set up protocols and a plan which the long island power authority would have to comply with because they have just totally inadequate until now. king is asking the president to send in more people from fema and more people from the energy department. gregg? gregg: molly hennering about, live at the white house. molly, thanks. martha: also this morning there is a scathing new report that puts the blame of the failure on mf global at the feet of its former ceo jon corzine. congressional investigators however have stopped short of accusing the former democratic senator and new jersey governor of criminal actions and peter barnes has been looking into all this from the fox business network in washington. he joins us. what does this report say about jon corzine's management of the firm? >> reporter: well, martha, this is a culmination of a year-long investigation into the collapse of mf global because of risky bets that

jon corzine made on european debt. $1.6 billion in customer funds went missing. and the report blasts corzine for his management of the company, saying, quote, during his 19-month tenure as chairman and ceo of mf global jon corzine made several fateful decisions. the cumulative effects of which, caused mf global's bankruptcy and jeopardized customer funds. soon after joining mf global jon corzine decided to turn the company it into a full service investment bank. this chart ad radical new course for the financially troubled company. regulators are investigating, continuing their investigations into the firm's collapse and looking at possible violations of the law. there is a report also blasts regulators for not coordinating and communicating enough before the bankruptcy to try to prevent it. corzine could face civil charges in this case, martha. martha: wow! fascinating, so

many questions whether or not he signed off on allowing customers money to be used to cover some of these risky bets. what about those customers and where their money is, peter? >> reporter: well, most of the $1.6 billion has been tracked down and majority of it has been recovered but the bankruptcy trustee who is working on behalf of the customers is still fighting to get the last few hundred million dollars of this money that is stuck over with european bank regulators. martha? martha: just 100 million. a couple hundred million dollars. nothing big. peter, thank you very much. peter barnes in washington. >> reporter: you bet. gregg: british oil company bp agreeing to pay the largest criminal penalty ever in american history to settle all the cases stemming from that massive oil spill in the gulf of mexico almost two years ago. the associated press reporting that two bp employees will also face manslaughter charges over the deaths of 11 workers on

board the deepwater horizon oil rig. the explosion and fire spilled oil into the gulf for nearly 90-days. bp will also reportedly plead guilty to obstruction for lying to congress how much oil was actually pouring out of that ruptured well. not known just yet how much bp will pay although it is expected to be in the billions of dollars. martha: well president obama with some tough words for some top republicans. >> if senator mccain and senator graham and others want to go after somebody, they should go after me. martha: very strong made in yesterday's conference. republicans say u.n. ambassador susan rice they believe is unfit for promotion. that growing debate straight ahead. gregg: and the president is meeting with business execs at the white house today. he says the middle class is his top priority but, will the president's policies allow those ceo's to hire new employees?

martha: and the mystery of the massive home explosion in indiana now deepening as another house explodes in a completely different neighborhood. >> the ones that happened in indianapolis, those had heavy fire along with the explosions. this type here, it's undetermined what caused it because there was no fire with this explosion. it's that time of year. time for campbell's green bean casserole. you'll find the recipe at campbellskitchen.com. ♪ campbell's. it's amazing what soup can do. no one says th anymore, mom. [ woman ] raise the roof! ah? raise the roof! [ male announcer ] it's our biggest toy rollback of the year. find hundreds of rollbacks on the season's hottest toys in stores now, from america's gift headquarters, walmart.

martha: well, police in henderson nevada shot and wounded an armed man who barricaded himself inside a grocery store bathroom. when the suspect came out several hours later he allegedly pointed a gun at the officers and that is when the police shot him. he was wanted for robbing a nearby store and he faces a number of charges in those cases. gregg: well, a new showdown is shaping up on capitol hill between president obama and top republicans planning to block any attempt to promote u.n. secretary

general, to be secretary of state. now senator john mccain among those calling ambassador rice unfit because she went on five sunday talk shows and gave the american people incorrect, false information about the libya attack. the president though firing back. >> as i have said before, she made an appearance at the request of the white house in which she gave her best understanding of the intelligence that had been provided to her. if senator mccain and senator graham and others want to go after somebody, they should go after me. >> that is interesting for the president to say something that juvenile, not picking on anyone. guess as we just said, four americans died. is that picking on anybody when you want to place responsibility and find out what happened so that we can make sure it doesn't happen

again? gregg: here now georgia senator john any isakson from the senate foreign relations committee. senator, thanks for being with us. the editorials today, i looked through a bunch of much of them as the president's challenge, arrogant, bellicose, schoolyard childish bra vaud sew -- bra vowed dough. there wasn't a lot of applause for it. what do you think?. >> the president hit it on the head. he needs to be held accountable for what susan rice said. the talking points she was going from were wrong and we do know we knew there was a terrorist-behaved attack long before the day she was on the talk shows. the president of the united states needs to tell the american people a, a why they continue to talk about a trailer as the cause of the attack. b, why we were not able to protect united states ambassador from harm's way. the first ambassador killed in the line of duty since 1979.

those are answers american people need and frankly all our ambassadors over the world need because they need to know if they're protected when in harm's way. gregg: in the second debate, the president famously said he called it the terrorist attack the day after his address in the rose garden. does that make susan rice, rice's statements four days after that, even more dishonest? >> well, what the president needs to tell us is was she talk from the talking points the white house gave her when she asked here to go on the shows or was she winging it? that is the simple question you've got to ask. i think the president needs to tell us what the truth was in that circumstance? gregg: does this call into question her competence and more to the point, if the president nominates her to be the next secretary of state, would you oppose her? >> first of all, if she went off the talking points of administration that would be very problematic for an bam does are to the u.n. to do, that is number one. number two, susan rice

should be accountable for what she did. first the administration needs to be accountable to what they told her do. this is pretty simple problem to solve. we have the most of the fact. i've been in briefings. we know what we know. we know it was a terrorist attack. we know we were not prepared to defend the ambassador where he was at the time in benghazi. we know he lost his life. we know we need answers why we didn't know, why intelligence lacked and why we didn't help the ambassador out. gregg: the president at the news conference refused to say whether he issued an immediate order to help those under attack in benghazi. do you want to get to the bottom of that? >> absolutely. i mean we, we owe it to ourselves and hopefully the accountability review board is going to do it but the president needs to come forth and tell us who knew what, when and why the united states of america was unable to protect a diplomat in harm's way and in a very important part of the world. gregg: what about asking the the president to testify?

i did a little double-checking this morning. several presidents have testified before congress. gerald ford most recently. but abraham lincoln, george washington, woodrow wilson. is this a time in which maybe the president needs to tell you directly, to your committee, what happened? >> the american people owe an explanation and after what the president said yesterday it is his responsibility. he should give that explanation names. history shows american presidents have come forward during difficult times when there were mistakes made by the ad administration and been forthright. only when they didn't, only when they tried to be oblique, only when they tried to put the facts aside does american presidents ever get in trouble. the president should come forward and tell us the facts what we knew, when we knew it and why we weren't prepared. gregg: on a related subject do you find it inconceivable that the president didn't know about the petraeus affair and incident and

investigation until after the election? >> i don't find it inconceivable. i find it odd but i don't find it inconceivable. david petraeus broke trust with the american people. he was a great general. he did a great job for the united states of america but he broke a of the interest and -- trust and did the right thing to resign. what the president knew i don't know and it is up to president to tell us. gregg: again would you like the president to testify before congress? >> i would like the president to give us information. whether testimony in a panel, whether before the committee or in written communication. i don't care how we receive it. we should know the factings and when they know the facts she thud give it to us. gregg: senator john any isakson, thank you for being with us. >> thank you, gregg. martha: we have breaking news from our reporter on capitol hill. he will tell us that hillary clinton will indeed testify on the benghazi matter. that will happen in early

december. she will testify before congress. we do not know whether or not it will be open or closed sessions. that is big news because we have not heard from the secretary of state on the issue of benghazi. of course ambassador chris stevens was under her direction. was put in that position in fact by hillary clinton. so a lot of questions will be asked of her about what she knew about what security requests they had made for greater security on the ground to protect the ambassador. big news there. also we can now tell you that general petraeus will also testify before the senate intel committee tomorrow morning. we knew he would be before the house committee at 7:30 a.m. tomorrow morning. he will now appear before the house intel committee at 9:00 a.m. tomorrow morning. we are about a learn a lot more about what happened on the ground in benghazi. a lot of questions have been asked and perhaps those answers will start unraveling when these people begin to tell their stories throughout the course of the next few days. we'll be right back.

martha: all right. breaking news this morning. we are about it learn quite a bit more perhaps about the backstory of what really happened leading up to the events in benghazi on september 11th and how it was handled afterwards because secretary of state hillary clinton will testify on libya in early december. and we are now learning also coming in from producer chad pergram moments ago, that testimony will be open testimony. so we will be able to cover the questioning of hillary clinton live here on fox news when that takes place in early december. and of course you remember how upset and understandably so hillary clinton was when she learned that ambassador chris stevens had indeed been murdered in the attacks in benghazi. she appointed him in that

position and put him in that role but there are also a lot of questions requests from stevens and no real addressing of concerns they need more security and there was a growing al qaeda presence in that area in benghazi. i'm joined by catherine herridge live on capitol hill. catherine, this is big development. >> reporter: we had two big developments this morning, martha. first former cia director david petraeus will now be testifying in closed session before the house and senate intelligence committees early friday morning. this will not be open to the public or to the media. and second as you mentioned this new information that the secretary of state hillary clinton will be testifying on capitol hill before the house and senate foreign affairs committees. sometime in early to mid-december, but the findings of this internal review at the state department, it is called accountability review board. that review board will look specifically at the issue of these requests for extra help that came from the consulate on the ground,

from ambassador stevens and also specifically at this classified cable that summarized an emergency meeting at the consulate in mid-august where they predicted the very way the consulate would be attacked. they warned headquarters they could not defend against a coordinated assault. they identified 10 islamist groups as well as al qaeda operating within benghazi. the question is why these repeated requests were denied. were they denied for budget reasons? or were they denied for more of a political reason that the administration wanted to continue to have a small footprint on the ground in libya and they wanted to rely on the libyan security forces to protect that consulate, martha. martha: yeah, exactly. a lot of questions all this brings up. in terms of general petraeus there is reporting this morning, catherine, he really wanted to get out there, the cia's timeline what their reaction was. he was, according to the report this morning in "the wall street journal"

somewhat at odds with others in the administration and within the intelligence community about the cia's reaction, whether or not he should be able to put forth his own timeline to dispute some of what was being said. >> reporter: this is significant reporting. when the cia director resigned on friday, fox news was told that we should question whether this timeline of events that had been put out by the cia had been cleared by the ad administration and by the white house in advance or whether this was a unilateral action taken on behalf of the cia director to put his story or the agency's story out in the public because we have a timeline from the defense department, a timeline from the state department but what was missing was that central timeline from the cia. so that's question number one. question number two based on our conversations with lawmakers at what point did the cia director understand that he was the focus of this fbi investigation and whether this in any way

distracted him or affected his performance in september at the time of the benghazi attack, martha. martha: certainly in any event have a lot of on his plate with all of that going on. catherine, thank you very much. >> reporter: you're welcome. gregg: as martha mentioned secretary of state hillary clinton is now set to testify to lawmakers on the subject of libya. what are we going to learn from her testimony? well, we'll put that question to ambassador john bolton who will be joining us next. martha: this incredible story. a second house explosion in less than a week. we're going to tell you where and what investigators think is happening. >> it took the home off its foundation. so, that could just tell you right there that type of explosion to take a house off its foundation had to be pretty substantial. om a legal st or annuity over 10 or even 20 years? call imperial structured settlements. the experts at imperial can convert your long-term payout into a lump sum of cash today.

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order now, and get this document shredder, a $29 value, free! call or go online now. [♪...] gregg: fox news alert. secretary of state hillary clinton will testify in an open hearing about the libya terror attack. let's get reaction now from ambassador john bolton, former u.s. ambassador to the united nations. ambassador, what do you think? >> i think everybody has been waiting for this. i think secretary clinton has done an outstanding job of keeping herself in the background for the last two months, going right back to the famous appearance on five sunday shows by susan rice as the president confirmed yesterday,

of course, susan rice doesn't have anything to do with benghazi. and a question asked then was where is hillary clinton? this is her mission in libya, it was her ambassador who was killed, along with three others, why wasn't she on television answering these questions? now, why is her testimony not until mid december, early december? i think for some time now she's been waiting for this internal state department review board to complete its work and she wants to wait for that to come out and digest it and that may be her new line of defense. it's been i'd have to say a very successful tactical effort by the secretary of state to avoid the spotlight. gregg: ambassador, secretary clinton is in charge of the diplomats, and the diplomats in benghazi were begging not only for greater protection before the attack, but then, of course, you know, their cia operatives

were begging for help during the attack. what role do you think she may have played in this? >> i think people have no answer to that question, and it stunned me and has stunned me how passive she has seemed since the attack occurred on september the 11th, content to wait for this review board. we've had no indications of her going to red alert inside the state department. i must say there is not a secretary of state i've ever worked for before who wouldn't have been 24-7 on this immediately. so i think she has a lot of questions to answer, and i think -- because it was fundamentally her responsibility that she really should be more in the center of the events at benghazi than she has been. gregg: what does that mean, red alert? and do you think she was, or the state department was watching in realtime, we heard at least one individual at state was, watching the attack unfold.

would she have been involved in that? >> let me put it this way and i just used red alert generically. if i were -- any secretary of state i've ever seen with one of his or her facilities under attack with his personnel missing, or feared dead would have been at the state department all night if need be, would have been doing whatever they could be doing. would have been on the phone with the libyan government, with other governments to try and get help to in this case the consulate in benghazi. and yet we've never heard anything about what the state department was doing, other than down at the mid level range, which i just find strange. again, it's the passive department and the administration as a whole think i think is inexplicable. gregg: you also find it strange if not inexplicable that the president keeps saying as he did

yesterday at the news conference, well, you know, i really can't talk about this because it's under investigation. my goodness, i mean it's been two months. if you're president of the united states you can get answers in two days, can't you? >> yeah, let's be clear about this. that was a dodge by this so-called former constitutional law professor. the president is charged by article 2 of the constitution to take care that the laws be faithfully executed. he is the top law enforcement officer. he is entitled to know what the department of justice is doing, whether it's a criminal matter, or whether it's a national security matter. there are no inch a bigses, there cannot be inabitions. now if he doesn't want to learn, if he wants to be detached, which is the obama style, that to me is a point of criticism. gregg: there is no law that i'm wear of that prohibits him from telling the american people the truth, just saying, oh, it's

under investigation, there is nothing that stops him, as the commander and chief from telling the american people what is going on. ambassador -- >> as the chief law enforcement officer. gregg: yeah, yeah. >> he can say i don't care about potential criminal liability, i want the truth to come out. it's within his power to do that. gregg: all right, ambassador john bolton thank you so much. >> thank you. martha: we are starting to piece together a story coming in from united aeufr line airlines of a massive computer outage or glitch as it's being skreufpltd it's stranding passengers across the country. we know that the faa spokeswoman said at o'hare airport there is some kind of computer problem going on at united. it's her understanding that some planes are going out. fbn is reporting that united is tweeting, which is how we get so much information in these kind of situations, that they are aware of the computer issue that

is affecting some of their flights and they are working to resolve it and will update as soon as details become available. we will keep an eye on it and let you know. in the meantime senate lawmakers hearing testimony right now on the deadly meningitis out break. so far there are 451 fungal meningitis in 19 states and 32 people have died as a result, all of them getting the disease after receiving steroid shots from a massachusetts pharmacy. jonathan serrie is live in atlanti atlanta on this. what is happening in these hearings. >> senators are questioning public health officials and also the fda commissioner in light of this meningitis outbreak. in particular they are looking at the compounding pharmaceutical industry, an industry that's rile evolved from individual pharmacists making specific prescriptions for specific patients, for example if you have a kid who can't swallow a pill a

compounding pharmacist could turn that pill into a liquid medication. but the industry has now evolved so that you have some large compounding pharmacies that are mass producing medications. because they are compounding pharmacies they don't face the same federal regulation and oversight as drug manufacturers. one of the things this committee is exploring is whether that needs to change, martha. martha: one of the pharmacy owners apparently was called to testify. what do the senators hone they are going to learn from him? >> yeah, necc coowner barry cadden was supposed to testify both at this hearing and also at a similar house subcommittee hearing yesterday. he was called under subpoena. however yesterday in response to each question on the house side he took the fifth. listen. >> what explanation can you give -- >> i respect lee decline to answer. >> what do you say to all of

these patients. >> i respectfully decline to answer on advice of counsel. >> will you invoke your fifth amendment rights in response to all questions today in. >> yes. >> reporter: mr. cadden is expected to return to the senate side today but most people expect that once again he will take the fifth. martha. martha: that makes you wonder. thank you very much, jonathan. jonathan serrie. gregg: a big meeting at the white house tomorrow about the u.s. economic situation and possible tax increases on 88% of households all over america in about one month. a top union leader just saying there is no real urgent short-term crisis. we'll have a fair & balanced debate on that. martha: a small plane safely makes hen emergency landing on a california freeway. wait until you hear what happened after that. >> it's a brand-new engine, i was doing a test flight. >> i've seen a lot but this is definitely knew.

new. i didn't know what to expect. for singing definitely dry mouth has been a problem for me.

but i'm also on a lot of medications that dry my mouth out. i just drank tons of water all the time. it was never enough. i wasn't sure i was going to be able to continue singing. i saw my dentist and he suggested biotene. it feels refreshing. my mouth felt more lubricated. i use the biotene rinse twice a day and then i use the spray throughout the day. it actually saved my career in a way. because biotene really did make a difference.

gregg: you never know what you're going to see out on the california highway. check this out. a small plane makes an emergency landing on the grassy center of a freeway in l.a. after its engine died, and the plane landed safely. nobody on the ground was injured. >> i just couldn't get it going, and so at that point you just start thinking about where you're going to put it down. gregg: after the plane was repaired the california highway patrol closed down part of the highway so of course the pilot could have a runway to get his plane back up in the air. martha: i'm sure everyone on the freeway appreciated that whole thing. all right, how about this. just breaking this morning, crossing a little while ago, the head of the largest labor unions in the nation now saying that the so-called fiscal cliff is all made up. i says it's nothing but a fabrication. richard trumka wrapping up a speech months ago and here is a quote from that speech. take what the media are calling

the quote fiscal cliff. there is no fiscal cliff. what we're facing is an obstacle course with a manufactured crisis that was hastily thrown together in response to inflated rhetoric about our federal deficit. don't misunderstands me, i don't for a moment think that america's deficit is not a long term problem he says it is, but it's not our short term crisis. so, why don't we think about this. charlie gasparino is fox news network senior correspondent. we have the chief economist at first trust advisers l. p. apparently there is no fiscal cliff. what are we worried about? >> that doesn't surprise me, martha. i can imagine the labor unions want the tax hikes going up, thief -- or tax hikes to happen. they've always wanted that, and what is scaring people about it is this -- is that if we over

this shreuf r-r it is economic suicide. my forecast is if we allow ours toss have all those tax hikes happen we will have a recession, a two or three quarter recession. so he's trying to tell people in the to worry about that, and i'm not surprised that he's doing that, but he's wrong. this is not a manufactured crisis, this will be a serious economic crisis if we allow ourselves to go over this cliff and have all of those tax hikes happen on january 1st. martha: charlie, what is your reaction? >> that was some good writing, i will tell you that. whoever pieced that together, and i guarantee it's not richard trumpka who is about three french fries short of a happy meal, eupl say this. the left is trying to say that this is a manufactured crisis, all we have to do is keep presenting money and spending it and everything will be all right down the road. there is a law on the books. the law says if you don't reach a compromise within the next 44 days, until the end of the year, x and y is going to happen,

massive budget cuts to defense and massive tax increases. my view is, let's just say we did nothing and the president got everything that he wanted, including his tax increases on the -- on entrepreneurs, anybody making $250,000 or more. entrepreneurs, small business, that's what gets hit there. we are going to go into a recession anyway. look at the way the markets are reacting to this stiff and the unemployment claims today. they shot up pretty dramatically. this economy is not healthy. we are in trouble no matter what. martha: i mean, it seems to me that, you know, when you're addicted you need to at first recognize that you have a problem. so if richard trumpka doesn't think there is a problem i think there are a lot of economists who are worth that are salt and have all our french fries and happy meals and they disagree. i spoke yesterday to one of the ceo opens who attended a conference yesterday and it comes down to creating jobs in this country, and they are saying, you know, from what i'm hearing, that unless this is

resolved in a way that really takes a bite out of this manufactured debt crisis they are not going to be able to hire folks down the road, they are going to try to get smaller and leaner and more efficient if anything. brian go ahead, then charlie. >> we recently raised our recession odds from 10% to 25%, and the reason was the uncertainty about the election, obviously, and then the fiscal cliff. we are already seeing businesses hold back. they are holding back in investing, holding back in hiring. now we have not just uncertainty, we have the real impact of this fiscal cliff. and if we go over it. we are talking about dividend tax rates of over 40%, a major increase in capital gain taxes. this will affect investment and really affect the economy. this isn't just fear-mongering, this is a major economic issue. martha: let's get a quick take from you char here. >> i would say that meeting with

the president was one of the most intellectually dishonest confabs i've ever seen. those guys went in there, they were spoken to by the president, if they had anything, any guts, you know, i almost said something else, but i'm going to -- i know this is a family show. martha: it's an early show. >> if they had any guts they would have said to the president, you want to raise taxes, you're going to kill small business, prevent us from hiring, you're going to destroy an already weak economy and i guarantee those clowns did not say that. martha: i was told that the president listened a lot more than he spoke yesterday which was a big change from the last time around. >> i tkoeubt. >> let'doubt it. >> let's hope he did. >> and he forgot about it five minutes later. martha: good to have you here. thank you, gentlemen. gregg: let's check in with jenna lee to find out what is happening on "happening now." jenna: i wish charlie would have told us what he really feels about all of this. gregg: he holds back, he's set ta sapbt.

jenna: secretary of state hillary clinton will testify to congress next month on the terror attack in benghazi. the congresswoman who made that request joins us with what is next. that's all coming up on "happening now."

martha: now a second home explosion is puzzling investigators in indiana. a two-story home was destroyed in the town of south indianapolis. the house was thrown off its foundation, the explosion was so powerful. thankfully nobody was injured. remember on saturday a house exploded in another neighborhood and in that one two people lost their lives. it was leveled. two other homes as well, and destroyed more than a dozen other houses in that area. investigators believe that both may be the result of natural gas explosions, but they are not ruling out other explanations at this point.

gregg: violent new processes breaking out today in south africa, police using teargas and rubber bullets against striking farmers who demand higher pay. all of this coming after months of strikes in the country's mining industry, some of them quite deadly. greg palkot is following this story from london. >> reporter: the greatest unrest happening in cape town south africa. one person was killed. violence spreading through several towns in the area. the demand, a big hike in wages. they earn on average less than 10 bucks a day. this again after a lot of trouble in that important mining sector in south africa, one incident in august 34 protestors were killed by police, since then there have been more strikes, some a tkpwraoeuplts, one union winning a double-digit pay increase. not much when you see the small

wages there. the difference in earnings between the blacks and whites and a long ways to go with the developing economy, the annual economic growth in south africa well below 3% not enough to put a debt in the whooping 28% unemployment in that country. one more sign of the tensions between workers, business owners, and the desire nor growth, seen in south africa, seen all over the world. back to you. gregg: greg palkot live in london, thanks. martha: breaking news on the investigation into the attacks on the consulate in benghazi. we now know that secretary of state hillary clinton will testify about the events that took place in libya, but not until december. we'll be right back.

oh, let me guess --ou see this? more washington gridlock. no, it's worse -- look, our taxes are about to go up. not the taxes on our dividends though, right? that's a big part of our retirement. oh, no, it's dividends, too. the rate on our dividends would more than double. but we depend on our dividends to help pay our bills. we worked hard to save. well, the president and congress have got to work together to stop this dividend tax hike. before it's too late.

jenna: good news, if flying is in your plans today, the united airlines spokesperson says that the computer glitch is gone, they are back up and run. they got that straightened out. gregg: thank goodn